SAS files for bankruptcy protection after pilots strike

A day after its pilots went on strike, SAS said on Tuesday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, the latest reverberation in a summer of turmoil for European airlines. SAS described the filing, made in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, as the “next step” in a reorganization that would address the money-losing airline’s financial difficulties, including cost reductions of more than $700 million. It said it was in discussions with potential lenders who could provide $700 million in financing to support operations through the Chapter 11 process. It expected to emerge from the process in nine to 12 months. The company said many international airlines had used US courts for bankruptcy proceedings because the Chapter 11 law offers advantages to businesses undergoing restructuring with divisions in different parts of the world. SAS, which is the national airline of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, said it would continue flying, although on Monday it called the pilots’ strike “devastating” and warned that it could cause the cancellation of half its flights, affecting about 30,000 passengers daily. On Monday, SAS canceled 51% of its flights, according to FlightAware. By midday on Tuesday, nearly 80% of its flights had been canceled. SAS’s stock price fell about 15% Tuesday, extending a 5% decline the day before. “The ongoing strike has made an already challenging situation even tougher,” Anko van der Werff, the airline’s CE, said Tuesday. SAS’s troubles come in a summer riddled with problems for the air travel industry, caused by staffing shortages and walkouts by employees unhappy with long hours and low pay that has failed to keep up with soaring inflation. Airports across Europe have been scenes of long lines of unhappy passengers, eager to travel after years of pandemic lockdowns.<br/>